Nucleus appoints ex-Sanlam director as MD

Nucleus has appointed ex-Sanlam UK finance director Stuart Geard as its managing director following the departure of previous incumbent John McNeill.

Sanlam is Nucleus' single largest shareholder of Nucleus with 42% of the company's shares. Geard previously worked for South African insurer Sanlam (Corporate Finance) in Cape Town before relocating to the UK in 2005.

He has been a board member of most of Sanlam Group's businesses in the UK including Nucleus, and also served as chairman of Nucleus's audit and risk committee since 2009.

Geard had planned to quit Sanlam UK to return to South Africa but decided to abandon that to stay in the UK for the Nucleus role which he will start in October.

David Ferguson, chief executive of Nucleus, (pictured), said: 'Stuart is one of the smartest and most talented guys I have ever had the pleasure of working with. It is a massive coup for Nucleus that he and his family have reversed their earlier decision to return to sunny South Africa to join the Nucleus team and move to slightly less sunny Edinburgh.

'His knowledge and understanding of Nucleus and the market it operates in are second to none and I very much look forward to working closely with him to further develop and grow the business.'

Geard said of his appointment: 'As a non-exec of Nucleus I have worked with David and the team for several years. What they have achieved in that time has been fantastic and while the prospect of moving home was appealing, the opportunity to become more closely involved in this hugely exciting business was not one I wanted to let pass me by.'